Bulletin No: 2015.106 – Monday September 7, 2015

Belarus Tour, Part 2

Thursday, 27th of August 2015, Minsk

A beautiful sitting

As usual, Kamlesh bhai got ready and started towards Minsk ashram. On the way he talked about a paradox. He said, “The world is complicated. You know, they say to consider others as better than yourself. Then you are supposed to listen to them, you know?” There was laughter. “Sometimes it is said, ‘Why listen to others? Follow your heart.’ It is too complicated. Even in spirituality there is a paradox. Follow your heart. Of course it is a higher self.”

At 7:30 a.m. Kamlesh bhai conducted satsangh for about 55 minutes. He said, “It was a beautiful sitting”. He mentioned that with this we could actually end the seminar. It was only the beginning of the third day here! It looks like time is frozen or moving slowly here.

Around 9:00 a.m., he went for a short walk and visited a nearby church. He then attended to a lot of work till about 11:00 a.m. when it was time to start the next session.

Heartfulness

This session started differently. Kamlesh bhai spoke about his experiments and experience with meditation in his early days, and led the talk into the Heartfulness approach. He explained how each and everyone could participate in the Sahaj Marg Spiritual Movement with confidence.

He said, “I would all like of you to try it with your friends, and with your family members. And when you are in a restaurant and you are waiting for an order, try it out with whoever is sitting with you, saying ‘Okay, let me put you to a relaxed state,’ and you give those commands. By the time dinner comes that person is fully relaxed. You can impress the person: ‘You see what I did to you.’ So it is important that we all learn these commands on how to help people relax.

“And then you can open up the next topic and say, ‘Now, this is only at the physical level. Relaxation can happen at the emotional level, the mental level and the spiritual level through meditation.’ Most of us are not preceptors, so you can say, ‘Okay, close your eyes, and I will meditate with you, and see how you feel.’ You may say, ‘Please start’, and you end the sitting after thirty minutes. Just before the sitting, five to ten minutes beforehand, you can call one of your preceptor friends and say, ‘Please attend to us, we are having a sitting here in this place.’ So the preceptor will work on the group. And that is how you will give them the first sitting, the second sitting, and the third sitting, like that without actually going to a preceptor.”

Simplicity, purity and sacredness

In the talk, Kamlesh bhai again emphasised the scientific and experiential approach to introducing meditation to seekers. He conducted a practical session on ‘guided cleaning’, emphasising the key aspects of the state resulting from cleaning. Cleaning must create in us simplicity by the removal of complexity, purity by the removal of impurity, and sacredness by the sacred current entering our system from the Divine Source.

Guided cleaning

“Please close your eyes very gently and sit straight. Focus on your back side from the top of your head down to the tailbone. Your entire back is in your sight, in your vision.

“All the complexities and impurities are going away in the form of smoke. The smoke is oozing out from your back side. Intensify this process. Accelerate the way the smoke comes out from the back.

“You will feel lighter and lighter. Continue with the smoke going away from the back side in a very intense way. So we continue like this for about twenty to twenty-five minutes.

“When you feel the most light, that means you are connected with the Source. And from this Source descends the Sacred Current entering your heart. The Sacred Current, the Divine Current is helping in removing the impressions from the back side.

“When complexities are gone, you are feeling simple. Impurities are going and you are feeling pure. The Sacred Current is entering the heart and pervading every cell, every corner of your body. Feel that your whole body is feeling sacred, like a temple of God. Your whole body is now completely purified and has become a temple of God. That’s all.”

He explained how to gradually introduce other aspects of the practice: “So we have introduced relaxation, we have introduced meditation, and now we have introduced the cleaning process. After a week or two you meet your friend again: ‘Okay, let me teach you how to pray.’ And we give commands, telling them: ‘O Master! Thou art the real goal of human life.’ Finish the whole prayer, and try to explain who is the Master, who is the real Master. It is always God. This prayer is always addressed to God.

“Many people are confused by why we don’t say ‘God’ at the very beginning. It is a very tricky subject, and most people are confused by it. But years of practice have taught me one thing: a person who was your friend, your girlfriend or your boyfriend, has a different role after you are married. That person is no longer your girlfriend or your boyfriend. After you marry they are your husband or a wife. In Sahaj Marg, through spirituality, when we experience the presence of God in reality in another person, than that person becomes your Master. Not until then. Until then he is your guide, he is your friend. Babuji would say, ‘It doesn’t matter how you take me. Take me as your servant, I’ll clean your house and clean your heart, as long as you keep your heart open to receiving transmission.’ So after we introduce prayer, after some time, slowly we introduce constant remembrance, then the Ten Maxims way of life, satsangh, individual sittings. Slowly.”

After his talk, there was a question and answer session on Heartfulness, where he kept encouraging one and all. The session was filled with laughter, happiness and lightness. It went on for more than an hour. This session was all about how to take the Heartfulness approach to one and all.

In the evening, around 5:00 p.m., Kamlesh bhai and a small group drove down to a village on the Naroch, a large lake in Belarus. He went for a long walk around the lake after dinner and later went to rest. There were many discussions here and there. In one of the discussion he said, “Preoccupation with anything is bad.”

Friday, 28th of August 2015, Naroch

In love there is no labour

Kamlesh bhai was up early and ready to drive back to the Minsk ashram. Before starting, he conducted satsangh in a log cabin near a small water body. It was a two-hour drive back to the ashram, and he reached the ashram and conducted satsangh at 11:00 a.m., and granted permission to five abhyasis to work as preceptors. He distributed the certificates and gave a short talk. He suggested that all should read the Sahaj Marg literature thoroughly and prepare themselves to serve others. During the day he kept meeting children and distributing chocolates. One of our sisters asked Kamlesh bhai, “How to do preceptor’s work without getting tired?” He said, “In love there is no labour.”

At 6:00 p.m., he conducted satsangh for about thirty-five minutes. After satsangh he met preceptors from the CIS region and gave a talk. He clarified many questions on preceptors’ work and advised all to work diligently and use the opportunity to grow spiritually. He emphasised the need to work quietly and anonymously saying that such work is always noticed by God and makes Him happy. While talking about humility, he gave the example, “Can one pour a couple of cups of water in the ocean and think that he is filling the ocean?”

Thinking to feeling

At the dining table, Kamlesh bhai shared an insight, a new way of looking at meditation. He said, “It is the process where multi-thinking slowly evolves to regulated thinking on the object of meditation, and from that single-pointed thinking to the feeling of the object of meditation. In short, meditation can be defined as a process of thinking resulting in feeling.”

He mentioned that meditation should evolve from thinking to feeling, feeling into being, being into becoming and finally going beyond. How is this possible? It is possible through absolute openness.

While talking about meditation he said, “Most of us fail in explaining how the meditation was, the colour, the feeling, the vibration, the expansion, because our interest is not so much. We have interest, but not enough to take us deep into it and break it down.”

While talking about spiritual progress, he said, “You should refer to Lalaji. The real growth is not in points or regions or things like that. You could be in the Centre itself, so what? If your behaviour does not change, if your temperament is not good, the way you speak is not good …. External modalities have to be balanced. The way you talk to people, respect, humility, softness, gentleness; these are the traits that Lalaji is looking for.” At that time somebody served very sweet fruit. He tasted it and said, “Sweetness, how sweet you are, not just fruit. Even this fruit is sweeter than us!”

After dinner, he worked on emails and reviewed his own article on ‘A forgiving heart’. Another long day ended.

Saturday, 29th of August 2015, Minsk

Designing Destiny

The day started with satsangh at 7:30 a.m.

It was a special day. We had the second satsangh at 11:00 a.m. and Kamlesh bhai's first book Designing Destiny (Russian edition) was released by our Russian brother. Ten couples received blessings for their journey together in married life. Kamlesh bhai gave a very interesting insight about the purpose of marriage and how it can help us in our spiritual pursuit. This practical approach generated laughter from all, many times.

Around 5:00 p.m., Kamlesh bhai signed and distributed copies of Designing Destiny to many CIS centres. Many children met him to collect their chocolates.

Do your duty dispassionately in divine consciousness

At 6:00 p.m. Kamlesh bhai conducted satsangh in the main hall. After satsangh, he clarified and answered many questions raised by abhyasis on various aspects of life and spiritual practice.

Around 8:00 p.m., he returned to our host’s home and went straight to the kitchen! He asked for ingredients to prepare aloo. He cooked and showed the preparation process to the sisters in the kitchen. At the dining table, two young ones joined him and Kamlesh bhai made them taste not only the food but also how effectively relaxation can work! At the dining table, one sister guided the two children and some adults through relaxation. He was encouraging them to take up the practice by giving a practical experience of it.

After dinner, he met a group of abhyasis. There was discussion on various topics like expansion of the Mission, desire, prayer and many practical aspects of work.

He spoke about decentralising Sunday satsanghs and organising them in many places in cities, making it convenient for abhyasis to attend meditation. He said, “In one of the active centres, maybe eight months back they had 1,400 abhyasis every Sunday. Then they started decentralising the satsangh. They were previously meeting at three locations. Later they facilitated satsanghs at eighteen or nineteen locations. Now they have forty different satsanghs on Sunday itself. They are all together 2,100 strong in eight months. So there are about 700 additional abhyasis. After two weeks of beginning, three hundred had come who were not new abhyasis. They were all old abhyasis from a long time back, who were so happy that satsangh was starting in their area.”

While answering question about desires, he said, “Having desires means a feeling of incompleteness. Unless and until these desires are fulfilled, you don't feel complete. So as long as this incompleteness is there, there is discontent. As long as a devotee of God carries this discontent, he is insulting his Lord all the time. In such a situation how is the merger with God possible?” He also said, “Desire is negative thinking. Needs, of course, you fulfil. According to Babuji Maharaj, a sincere abhyasi will have all the needs granted by the Lord. And who is a sincere abhyasi? One who has the highest Goal in his mind all the time. The basic needs are what? Food, shelter and clothing. Other things are desires.”

Kamlesh bhai again talked about Swami Vivekananda and his efforts. The session concluded with his remark that the best way and the only way to take the message of the Masters to the world is by taking the message in our hearts first and then distributing.

It was almost 10:00 p.m. when he said “Good night” and went up to his room to start the next set of work. He mentioned that all abhyasis are enthusiastic to take the message to the world. It is very important that the message is taken into our hearts first.

Sunday, 30th of August 2015, Minsk

At 7:30 a.m. Kamlesh bhai conducted satsangh and gave a closing talk for the seminar. He said, “Our system of transmission, meditation and cleaning is an extraordinary system, an unparalleled system in the history of the human race. We should propagate this for the benefit of all. Some people have reservations that we don’t want to offer this system to certain people, but we should not have any such reservations or limitations. Offer it to one and all without reservation. It is up to them to reject; we should not reject.”

Stressing on the need for personal transformation, he said, “More than carrying the message to the outside world, we can take these messages to our own heart and make a drastic transformation once and for all. It is one thing to create a spiritual movement in the outside world, but it is a different thing to bring about absolute transformation within ourselves. We can bring about this movement by word of mouth, by association, and by inspiration, but transformation at a personal level is something not even God can do for us. No Guru can do it for us. We have to do it for ourselves.

“How to bring about this transformation at an individual level in our own personal lives? Make a mental note of the defects we have and then offer them to Master, ‘Okay these are my problems, I would like to solve them.’ He will help us, but he will not change us. As they say, he will facilitate the process of transformation, but the main responsibility is ours.

“So it is good to sit down at night-time and see where we have gone wrong, what our weaknesses are, and then we correct them. And if we cannot correct them on our own, we pray, ‘I need Your help.’ How does He help? By creating situations, by creating circumstances, and by creating inner conditions in us so that we are enabled that way.”

He stressed further on the need for sincere practice and said, “Make your inner experiences dynamic. Make sure you externalise your inner experiences. So with these few words, I thank you all, and I really hope to see you all again very soon. Thank you.”

He ended the seminar with “Dasvidaanya.”

Later in the day, he visited a family and the children at the host’s home rendered a small dance program on Lord Krishna. A dog by name of Jack suddenly made an entry into the program and joined the band of children. Within no time, the dog was rolling around in some rhythm and danced along with the children. It was a hilarious touch to the whole program, and all were laughing and enjoying this ‘unplanned’ dancer. Kamlesh bhai thoroughly enjoyed this unexpected presentation.

What an end to this seminar!

In the evening, Kamlesh bhai went for a brisk walk of five kilometres along the lake with a group of abhyasis. The day ended with his preparation for the next journey.

Monday, 31st of August 2015, Minsk

Life is all about sharing

Kamlesh bhai was up and ready very early in the morning to catch the flight from Minsk. On the way to the airport, a sister narrated a story of a man who travelled all alone and lived in the forest for some time, as all his efforts to get back to his family failed due to harsh weather conditions. He left a note that said, “Life is about sharing happiness.” Kamlesh bhai said, “It is also about sharing sadness.” He then said, “Life is about sharing.” We reached the airport around 5:00 a.m. and left Minsk by 6:45 a.m.

Kamlesh bhai said, “Goodbye Minsk.”